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Joe Pakuris watched what he called fairness and common sense unfurl over his retail marijuana dispensary Tuesday as workers high above Interstate 95 raised a billboard for his Mother Earth Wellness shop, one day after Gov. Dan McKee legalized outdoor pot advertising.
Pakuris’ advertising strategy won’t stop at just five billboards over the interstate.
“I plan radio, tv, everything – print, bus wraps, whatever I can do to catch up and let people know we are here and Mother Earth is here.”
Why can RI’s pot dispensaries only now advertise outdoors?
It’s been a long time coming for Rhode Island marijuana businesses, hamstrung by an advertising prohibition first established a decade ago with creation of the state’s medical marijuana program.
Meanwhile, stores in Massachusetts – which began selling marijuana for recreational use in 2018 – advertised freely along Rhode Island roadways.
Some of Rhode Island’s seven operating dispensaries, like Mother Earth, and numerous licensed cultivators had pleaded with lawmakers to lift the advertising ban, particularly after Dec. 1, when retail sales began in the Ocean State.
State regulators were sympathetic but said last year’s law legalizing recreational marijuana had left such decision-making up to a new Cannabis Control Commission.
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